₦airaland Forum

Ok work has finally started on the land. the local farmer delivered 2 labourers this morning, although he promised 7 (why am I not surprised?). but as they say, "half bread is better than none". they've started land preparation, in the most illiterate and unprofessional manner am actually a bit disappointed, I miss tractors

Pavore9:
@jasper7, getting farm hands can be frustrating, l know how it was begging villagers to come and work but they were not just interested! When you happen to find yourself at the mercy of Abakaliki labourers, you will know that truly A is for Apple!

hehehe. you speak the truth sir. A is indeed for Apple. I have realised this and I am beginning to appreciate the lazy workers in my own farm @ owerri. at least they show up on a daily basis

Angoni:
Hi Jasper7,

Fine work as usual!

Three questions, do you have a market yet? Is cucumber all you gonna grow? Those labor guys, I think you are charging below min wage, how much you are offering per person per day?

Please send pictures when you can, I mean new ones of land being prepared etc etc. I want to make sure when I go the the field to do this on my own I have all the tools, if you know what I mean!!!

Bless,

A

Not at all o. we are giving a good offer, N2,000 for a day job sounds pretty good enough. (my opinion). maybe am wrong.

About market, I am in the production unit. I did well to set up a marketing unit to start sourcing for potential market and so far they have done an immense job.

And concerning pictures, they will come, I have the whole timeline of photos so far on my fone. just poor network to upload them

stint:
Oga mi have u heard anything from the potential investor. I am only getting likes for my comment. Or is there any other opportunity for those without capital?

which investor is that? can't remember anybody promising anything

Monday 19th January. 7:20pm. just came back from our site. it has been a long long day. we have a new member to our production team, he is more of an apprentice. Mr Solomon (solbash11).

8:45pm. still unable to get Labour for the land preparation. now sitting on the house of one of the local farmers. we are begging him to help us secure labour by tomorrow no matter the cost. we are already late on our production timeline.

sourcing out labour is a very huge problem here o. na wa o. even with all the money we are dangling in their face. what has happened to the hustle spirit of the average Nigerian youth?

jeffmyson:
@jethro2, why do you think mile 12 is dominated by northerners and in extension fresh Produce business in Nigeria and in your own opinion can those fresh produce be grown in South West Nigeria?

My take on the whole issue is that the Lagos markets operates in cartels and tend to control the supply and in extension the price offered to farmers. This is where we need young savvy entrepreneurs to break the cartel and deliver quality, hygienic products at very affordable price.

The mass market remains the key to success in Agri business and I would rather sell 1000 basket a day for 20 naira profit than sell 100 basket a day for 50 naira profit. The money is in the mass market and we need to start seeing it that way and working that way.

Another issue with majority of our farmers is that every produce is heading towards lagos thereby creating a glut in the market which invariably leads to price reduction. There are many cities in Nigeria with less population but with good markets for fresh produce and can offer better prices.

Cheers!

I agree with most of what you've written here. but permit me to dispute a few.

Let me start with the last paragraph that says that most farmers are heading for Lagos market. This sir is a half-truth, the reason being the major farmers of fresh food (the northerners) have a supply chain around the country. The cheapest price for fresh food in lagos is about the most the expensive price for fresh food in the north and it's environs. The major farmers who fill up the Lagos market are small scale/rural farmers. and you don't expect a farmer who harvests 50kg of tomato to take it to a market that is 1,000 km away from him. therefore making Lagos the best option for them to dispose their goods at a reasonable price. Every major city in Nigeria has rural farmers who bring goods to their markets. it might not be the same goods. for example if you farm tomato in the west and you take it to port harcourt to sell, you are sure to make profit. but if you farm plantain and take to port harcourt, you are wasting time, because the Etche people in rivers state are major plantain farmers.

If we cannot have a network where fresh food is collected, with a good preservative system and a chain of distributors around the country, you can't really run away from the major markets close to you.

sheikh89:
D pix no wan upload ooo....kips saying an unexpected error occured...

maybe when you upload I might be able to analyse it. it might help other farmers to learn

hmmmm. following this thread with keen interest

FarmTech:
..
Pls, how much was the mulching films? And what is the coco peat used for?

from onitsha, we ordered the extended quality at 3k per 100m roll. but the commercial quality is about 2500.

cava:
@jasper , kalusam ,jethro are you going to repeat this same project after the jan 31 training. i will very much intrested to join both as a student and as an investor

No oooo. abeg. stress too much o. Lol

PapaBrowne:
Interesting project. I wouldn't be surprised if you guys beat the profit projections as the commitment and excellence applied from the beginning would certainly pay off.
I'm proud of you guys. Jasper, you are such an inspiration. Despite the health challenge you had, you keep pushing. Abeg small small with the manual labour oh.

my brother, thanks. it's not easy. but as nobody wan work, the project must go on.

mercylicious:
which mkt in osha did u get d seedling tray , cocopeat ? do u also mean organic fertilizer/manure was ferried also from onitsha to saki east? such a long journey. u wuld have also added knapsack sprayer in the list of things to be bought cos its cheaper here than in other states. i bought mine for n2800 (16litres) here.To transport those thins from osha to oyo state no be beans.

no be beans o. but as you rightly noted, most of this stuff are cheaper in osha. the organic fertilizer and seedling tray are from the seed company in owerri. while the coco peat is from abeokuta. I think what is worth doing is worth doing well. maybe I'll ask them to add knapsack to the consignment (that's if it has not been sent already). This info might come in very useful in the long run. I appreciate ma

mercylicious:
i also hope u made provision for logistics- transport and phone calls in ur budget. though it lloks small, bt when u aggregate it, u know how far.

my sister, that is part of the war we were fighting with the parliament. some people didn't want to give us breathing space in the budget. but it is well.

still saturday, the 17th.
After agreeing to visit the farm and work. me and my team set out to the farm, on getting there. I must confess, the land mass seemed to have multiplied itself 10X. it was looking more like 70acres to me. my hand no fit lift implement again. Manual Labour no be here at all.

We all agreed that the first step would be getting read of the pests as much as possible. how do we achieve? set the whole bush around on fire . Me I quickly told them that I have no experience in bush burning. I have never been involved in bush burning. .
Jethro and kalusam are the professional in that field.

oya bring matches! They brought. oya Jethro start fire! she tried but couldn't (after like 10 attempts). bush burning no easy o. Kalusam now stepped up first strike of the match, and the bush was on fire!!! It was amazing!! I have never seen stuff like that before. the way he was piloting the fire and chasing it made me give him a royal title (Osuofia one of saki east ). Altho the fire quenched later in the most anti-climatic way. it had done quite some work. it was interesting. we had fun.

mercylicious:
jasper, can't u see d guy is funny?
plz ignore as he is a regular guy on this thread but registered wit a new username to create fun.

My sister, I no fit shout again. I have moved on

Saturday the 17th. we visited the local govt so that we could hire tractor for our ploughing, ridging, harrowing,and to our greatest surprise a whole local Government lacked basic implements like harrow and ridger.

Jethro took us to so many private companies and they all said they don't work till rainy season.

we now started sourcing for manual labour as an alternative, everybody we met were saying next week or next 2 weeks.

Fear catch me small, sometimes the money is there, the seal is there, but things just don't go in your favour. I told the team that we should move to site and start work till we can secure labour. they all agreed (Thank God for such an understanding team).

I reject anything that wants to derail this thread. people must benefit from this thread. .

after much bull fight and war, the budget got approved on the Friday the 16th at about. And the money was paid into our account manager's account (kalusam). we were already running a race against time. so we hurriedly sent money to the seed company for the seed and technical support. we also paid for the mulching film, seedling tray, coco peat and organic fertilizer too. To be way-billed to us from far-away Onitsha. that was all we could achieve from Wednesday to Friday.

Please the purpose of this thread is to show intending cucumber farmers that it is not an easy task at all. incase you start feeling that money will fall from heaven to your laps.

Moving On

Lesgupnigeria:
Who.made you farmers police by the way.
Show nairalanders your farm pictures and farming experience before you can make yourself farmers police.
You have no farm,no experience,no knowledge about agricbusiness and you are arresting.
Get a job and a life!
What agribusiness experience do you have, to castigate farmers in the agric section as i have seen some quote attacking other farmers on various threads.

This job given to you by your paymaster will.not pay you on the long run. Your best bet is to spend your precious time building your.mental capacity and engage in activity that will help your future.

I just checked your profile and i noticed you open the account yetrday....i wanted to by-pass your comment but i feel the need to leave some statements with you.
Tell your paymasters that they have failed.

my brother, just don't mind him. the guy is too funny.

farmerspolice:
If u are advertising anything on this section, u must be transparent. All we need is ur picture, pictures of ur products, or services & u on d field. Be informed that there are spies all around u confirming ur claims. If u fall into d fraudster category, u will be dealt with both online & offline.

see, you have a good idea and I wish I could encourage you. but your manner of approach is too poor. why draft a post with intentions of terrorizing people?

Won't a post like this have made more sense to you?

DEAR MR JASPER, WE ARE A GROUP/INDIVIDUAL WHO HAVE THE SOLE AIM OF VERIFYING THE CREDIBILITY OF EVERY FARMER/AGRO MERCHANT ON NAIRALAND. PLEASE WE REQUEST THAT YOU SHOW OUR TEAM/AGENT FULL COOPERATION WHENEVER YOU ARE CONTACTED OR REACHED. WE WANT TO MAKE AGRO TRANSACTIONS HERE, SAFE AND SECURE. AND WE KNOW YOU DO TOO! THANKS FOR YOUR ANTICIPATED SUPPORT.

is that too civil for you? or must you go about it in the typical thuggish manner of Nigerians?

I suggest you adopt my suggested speech and watch every farmer here support you fully. I like your idea, but I just think you are going about it the wrong way

please, open my file o. I want to see how good you are in your job.

farmerspolice:
Noted! a file is opened for u n I'm patiently waiting.

No be only file, why don't you open a textbook or an office for me?

see, you have a good idea and I wish I could encourage you. but your manner of approach is too poor. why draft a post with intentions of terrorizing people?

Won't a post like this have made more sense to you?

DEAR MR JASPER, WE ARE A GROUP/INDIVIDUAL WHO HAVE THE SOLE AIM OF VERIFYING THE CREDIBILITY OF EVERY FARMER/AGRO MERCHANT ON NAIRALAND. PLEASE WE REQUEST THAT YOU SHOW OUR TEAM/AGENT FULL COOPERATION WHENEVER YOU ARE CONTACTED OR REACHED. WE WANT TO MAKE AGRO TRANSACTIONS HERE, SAFE AND SECURE. AND WE KNOW YOU DO TOO! THANKS FOR YOUR ANTICIPATED SUPPORT.

is that too civil for you? or must you go about it in the typical thuggish manner of Nigerians?

I suggest you adopt my suggested speech and watch every farmer here support you fully. I like your idea, but I just think you are going about it the wrong way

please, open my file o. I want to see how good you are in your job.

farmerspolice:
Mr jasper, keep to wat u are doing and don't interfere in what does not concern u. I av quoted so many farmers here already, what do u av up ur sleeves that is making u feel jittery? If u av nothing to hide then keep on keeping on, bt if yes, we will surely find u out.

Let me explain something to you. I try to be as nice as possible when talking with people. especially on a faceless forum like this. but sometimes guys like you tend to push me over the edge. why go around spamming people's thread with this pointless message? why don't you take time to read through the pages, maybe if you see something suspicious you can bring it up? maybe that way, you'll earn people's respect. Do you see police in your neighborhood, knocking around people's doors and warning them to be law abiding citizens. if I am asked, I'll say you are an old member on this section who opened a new account to see if he can gain relevance. you say people should post their pics, have you not gone through my thread to see pics, or have you bothered to check my profile to see if I have pics or not? Oga, where is your own pics? why don't you identify yourself so that everybody can see who they are dealing with. please, play this your truancy on other threads that are ready to tolerate it. I hate silly posts with passion. you just create a new account yesterday and within a day you have spammed all the major farmers on this section. what is wrong with you? did you just decide to live your fantacies of being a tyrant on nairaland?

farmerspolice:
If u are advertising anything on this section, u must be transparent. All we need is ur picture, pictures of ur products, or services & u on d field. Be informed that there are spies all around u confirming ur claims. If u fall into d fraudster category, u will be dealt with both online & offline.

Oga, why are you spamming all my thread? are you trying to use me to gain cheap popularity? since 3 months this thread has been open you are just appearing now. I am beginning to suspect you.

farmerspolice:
If u are advertising anything on this section, u must be transparent. All we need is ur picture, pictures of ur products, or services & u on d field. Be informed that there are spies all around u confirming ur claims. If u fall into d fraudster category, u will be dealt with both online & offline.

If only I could spew what is in heart randomly without thinking or reason just the way you did, I know what I'll be saying to you now. scratch that! Let me be more practical in my reply to this your funny post.

The funny part is that it's people like you who think they are smart that discard genuine people who could impact in your life and fall for cheap scams.

I suggest that if you don't have anything reasonable to contribute or suggest, why don't you sit back and wait till I start selling or advertising something?

11 investors, approximately 1million investment, 1 professional, 3 man team. with one goal. MAKE MONEY. That's what we are out to do.

Initially when we forwarded the budget to the parliament. I thought it would be an easy peasy approval. but it was not at all. The parliament was difficult to break. everybody bringing different suggestions, it was clear that getting a group to work in unison is not a small feat at all.

I had to remind them that we ( the 3-man team) are not being paid for the job and we are just doing it to prove a point (that agriculture is indeed the most profitable investment if done right).

A point I am going to prove very soon.

jasper7:
Pumping Machine - 25,000|
Soil Treatment - 25,000|
Organic Manure(Poultry waste) - 20,000|
Liquid Fertilizer - 20,000|
Bamboo - 25,000|
Seeds (2KG) - 170,000|
Farm Management - 120,000|
Ploughing/Harrowing/Ridging - 27,000|
Seedling Tray+Peat - 20,000|
Fuel+Oil - 60,000|Irrigation - 40,000|
Labour - 120,000|
Mulching Film - 180,000|
Knapsack Sprayer x 2 - 10,000.
Total: 862,000

Tentative budget for cultivating 3 acres of Land.

In making a budget for the farm, we had to take into consideration what we had on ground and the kind of farming practices we wanted to apply. after discussions we decided to use furrow irrigation which is one of the best irrigation methods for cucumber. what dimension of beds we needed to make to maximise production. what materials we had on ground already (hoes, shovels, wheel barrows e.t.c). After all these, we came up with a list. which we forwarded to the parliament of investors for approval. we had already been notified that about 1million had been raised for the project. which meant we just needed to make 1.5million after 3months. .
we requested for technical support from the seed company to manage the farm because I was not going to be around throughout the cycle. I planned to leave as on the 2nd of February. The thai agro group said their technical support costs 60k per month. we agreed to use it for 2months or 3months, depending on the necessity, at least till our own people can pick up.

so for 2 months. we calculated it as 120k for farm management.

Tuesday the 13th. (Evening) After much scrutiny on the site. Me and the team (kalusam and Jethro) headed back to our lodge to deliberate.

it was a heated (but friendly) deliberation. I was quite skeptical about the land because of the surrounding bush and pests and diseases around the land. it means we will have to do serious soil treatment before planting anything. which we finally agreed on.

First we'll need to burn the surrounding bushes if not the battle with pests and diseases will be enormous.
secondly, we have to treat the land with nematicides and fungicides before planting. so the work no be here.

we were able to carve out 3 acres for the group project and 4 acres for the community project.

Next was to draw a tentative budget and send to the group for approval.

Tuesday, the 13th. Off to the site early in the morning to access the land and evaluate if it's worth planting on. and yes, I did access the land, it's a clear grassland with a few economic trees hanging here and there. the land was sorrounded by thick bushes of elephant grass. The fresh water had a close proximity to the land. I also noticed some pests and diseases on the soil.

Next, I had to go home sit back and evaluate the land with my team members, Jethro and Kalusam.

I arrived saki east on monday the 12th of January. after a meeting with the facilitators on the upcoming Yabdi Agribusiness Training Holding at Abeokuta on saturday the 31st of January.

We arrived saki late at night so it was just sleep on my mind. and that was exactly what I did. sleep, sleep, sleep.

Pls this a private account of the project and whatever is written here stands for my opinion only.

sorry guys, I have been on site for about a week now, so, I just have to run it through quickly. And get you guys upvto date with events.

Hey guys, About a month ago, young farmers gathered at Ogbomosho, hosted by our Landlord Hotmas911 and group President World1. They were trained on Cucumber, Tomatoes, Plaintain, Soya Beans and Sweet Potato.

There and then, we all decided to run a group project so that we can raise funds to develop the virgin land given to us by our Landlord Mr hotmas911. if you are conversant with virgin lands you'll know that, developing a virgin land especially for vegetable farming is not cheap at all (very capital intensive).

We were able to secure farmland somewhere in saki east L.G.A (still in oyo state). with the help of one of our own people and also Nairalander (Jethro2). The land is very close to a freshwater. so we don't have to worry about sinking borehole or digging well. we'll just channel water from the Dam, into our farm. .

The deal with the village head was that I train his people and in return, he'll give me land for our project


You might find this to be the most educative thread on vegetable farming here. because we are going to be uploading daily pictures and also writing on our progress and challenges.

My fingers are absolutely crossed because I promised the group members/Investors a 50% ROI after 3 months. very achievable but the God's grace is key here.

LET'S GO THERE!